Wednesday

Apr 29, 2020 at 12:19 PM

WASHINGTON – Americans who received a stimulus check from the federal government also are getting something else in the mail: a letter from President Donald Trump.

A one-page letter from Trump started arriving over the weekend in the mailboxes of millions of Americans who received stimulus payments of up to $1,200 under a new law designed to help the economy recover from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Your Economic Impact Payment Has Arrived,” says the letter’s boldface heading. The letter, written on White House stationery, opens with the salutation, “My Fellow American.”

“Our great country is experiencing an unprecedented public health and economic challenge as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic,” the letter says. “Our top priority is your health and safety. As we wage total war on this invisible enemy, we are also working around the clock to protect hardworking Americans like you from the consequences of the economic shutdown. We are fully committed to ensuring that you and your family have the support you need to get through this time.”

At the bottom of the page – in bold, one-inch-high characters – the letter is signed “Donald J. Trump.”

A former taxpayer advocate at the Internal Revenue Service called the letter “unbelievable” and said it makes the agency “look like it is the handmaiden of one administration and one party.”

“This will harm the IRS and its ability to appear nonpolitical and nonpartisan,” said Nina Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights. “If I were there, I would be strongly advocating against this.”

The stimulus payments are part of a $2.2 trillion economic recovery package approved by Congress and signed into law by Trump on March 27. The Treasury Department said last week that nearly 90 million people already have received payments totaling nearly $160 billion.

The economic recovery law that provided for the stimulus payments requires that a written notice be sent via mail to the last known address of any taxpayer who received one of the stimulus checks. The law says the letter must be sent no later than 15 days after the money has been distributed and must include the payment method, the amount of the payment and an IRS phone number to report any failure to receive such a payment.

The law doesn’t dictate who should send the letter. Asked who decided that the letter would come from Trump, the Treasury Department referred a reporter to Trump's remarks at a news conference on Friday.

Trump said the letter was needed to fulfill the requirements of the law and to let "each American know that we are getting through this challenge together as one American family."

"And that's what's been happening," he said.

Olson said Trump's letter is the first time she can recall the president sending a letter directly to taxpayers through the IRS.

When tax rebate checks were distributed in 2001 under President George W. Bush, the IRS pushed back when the White House suggested a letter accompanying the checks include language along the lines of “we’re giving you back your money,” Olson said.

“That shows you the sensitivity of using the IRS to promote any particular administration or any administration policy,” she said. “It is supposed to be an apolitical administrator of the law that Congress writes and passes and the president signs. Period.”

Trump already has drawn criticism because his signature was added to paper checks sent to taxpayers who did not receive their stimulus payments through direct deposit. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it was his idea to include Trump’s name on the checks, and he denied reports that adding the president’s moniker delayed delivery of some of the checks.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump "unfortunately appears to see the pandemic as just another opportunity to promote his own political interests."

Schumer said he is planning to file legislation that would prohibit the use of any taxpayer funds "for any publicity or promotional activity that includes the names, likeness, or signature" of Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.

Olson said adding Trump’s name to the checks and then sending check recipients a letter from him could further damage the credibility of the IRS. The agency is still reeling from accusations that it audited taxpayers on Richard Nixon’s enemies list in the 1970s and reports that it heavily scrutinized conservative groups under the administration of Barack Obama, she said.

Trump’s letter to taxpayers sows further confusion, Olson said, because it arrives in an envelope from the Treasury Department and the IRS. The envelope notes that postage and fees were paid by the IRS.

“Just think of the optics of someone receiving a letter that comes in an IRS envelope, and the first thing they see is the letterhead of the president of the United States,” Olson said. “That immediately puts into people’s minds that the IRS is doing the will of the president of the United States and promoting the president of the United States rather than serving as an impartial broker and administrator of the revenue code.

“That will damage the IRS’s reputation, and it will damage the tax system. I don’t care who is the president of the United States. It doesn’t matter.”